Thursday, October 30, 2014

A beautiful pair of Holmegaard vases by Per Lutken, circa 1960. The tallest one is 14 inches.
The name of Per Lutken (1916-98) is synonymous with Danish glass. He originally trained as a painter at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen and designed his first piece of art glass for a Danish Craft exhibition in Stockholm in 1942. During his 56 year career at Holmegaard he created an extraordinarily broad and innovative range of designs, including the initial design for the famous Gullvase in 1958.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

A large, almost two feet tall, and handsome late 19th Century Continental Parian ware bust of a Greek God.

Parian is a type of bisque porcelain invented in the 19th Century to imitate white marble and was named after the Greek Island of Paros, renowned for its fine textured white marble for use in the finest statuary and buildings since antiquity.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Although possibly more than one thousand years old, this carved volcanic stone metate looks like a stool designed by Zaha Hadid or Finn Juhl. Carved from one piece of stone this would have originally been used as a grinding stone for corn.

We just acquired this from the deaccessioning auction of an arts center in the Midwest and unfortunately it did not come with any provenance. Estimating the age and exact origin of Pre-Columbian artifacts can be difficult but it could be Costa Rican. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metate

Because it's a large example, at 14 inches tall, it would work well as a stool in any contemporary interior.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

One of our favorite Italian ceramic artists is Alvino Bagni. Here we have an exquisite example of his work from the 1950s. Decorated using a wax resistant technique in a beautiful moss green and lemon yellow, 8.5 inches tall.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

It's rare to find original catalogs for companies like Barbini, these were discovered by a friend who was doing research at the Corning Museum of Glass in Upstate New York.
We have or have had all of the items illustrated on these pages in stock over the years.

Monday, October 20, 2014

A monumental Fantoni for Raymor vase from the 1960s. Thick lava glaze and gorgeous colors make this not just a vase but a piece of sculpture. Fluted on one side and not on the other, just over 17 inches tall.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Cleopatra may be the most famous woman of ancient Egypt, but far more
significant was Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh who reigned for nearly
twenty years in the fifteenth century B.C., during the early period of
the New Kingdom. After acting as regent for her young nephew-stepson
Thutmose III, Hatshepsut assumed the title of king and exercised the
full powers of the throne as senior co-ruler with Thutmose. In
accordance with Egyptian ideology and representational tradition, she
was often depicted as a male king. Hatshepsut's reign, fully accepted by
a flourishing Egypt, introduced a period of immense artistic
creativity. Some twenty years after her death, however, monuments
bearing her image were ruthlessly defaced, and her name was erased from
historical accounts.
All memory of this fascinating history in
pharaonic lore was lost until mid-nineteenth century, when Hatshepsut
was rediscovered by Egyptologists and her place in history restored.
Excavation began on her most magnificent surviving monument—the temple
she built at Deir el-Bahri near the Valley of the Kings, across the Nile
from modern Luxor. Thousands of stone fragments found in pits near the
temple were reassembled into magnificent statues of Hatshepsut, some of
colossal proportions. Discoveries continue even today, and, accordingly,
scholars' opinions about the historical role of this controversial
female have continued to change. The ongoing debate about her reign has
inspired the many authors of this volume, which accompanies a major
exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/de Young, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Kimbell Art Museum in
Fort Worth. Recent research on Hatshepsut and the nature of her kingship
is presented alongside wide-ranging discussions of the rich artistic
production that marked her reign.

Our statue is carved from marble and is most likely French from the late 19th century, 6 inches tall.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Two views of "Cantata" a brutalist bronze sculpture by Swedish artist Folke Trudesson (1913-1989). This sculpture is from his first exhibition at the Sture Gallery in Stockholm in 1957. 18 inches tall.
Trudesson is best known in Sweden for over 50 public sculptures including the 100m concrete absrtact wall at Radiohuset in Stockholm, the headquarters of Swedish Radio, built in 1961. here you can see the influence of this 1957 work on his commission for Radiohuset.

Monday, October 6, 2014

An Austrian bronze and marble centerpiece from the 1920s with a statue of the Toman God, Mercury.
He is the patron god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication, travelers,
boundaries and luck. Ten inches tall.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

On October 5th 1997 The End of History opened for business, and here to celebrate our 17th year is the appropriately named bronze sculpture "October Form" by British artist, John Erskine Milne.

John
Milne (1931-1978) was born in Lancashire. He first studied electrical
engineering at Salford Royal Technical College in 1945, transferring to
the art school at the College, specializing in Sculpture, until 1951. The following year he attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, in
Paris. For two years he was not only a pupil of Barbara Hepworth but her assistant at the same time.He is regarded as one of the most interesting and sophisticated of
the sculptors associated with St. Ives, the English post-war avant-garde
movement. His work of the fifties owed much to the St. Ives milieu in
which he lived. Later, however, Milne was greatly influenced by the
landscape and architecture of Greece, Persia and North Africa so that
his mature work assumed a more international flavour.

He participated in many solo and group shows during his career, most
notably at Newlyn Society, Plymouth City Art Gallery (including a
retrospective in 1971) and Genesis Galleries, New York. His work is held
by the Tate Gallery, London.

October Form was cast in 1972, a highly productive year for Milne, with his second solo show at the Marjorie Parr Gallery, London, where this sculpture was purchased.

About "The End of History"

212 647-7598
Business Hours
Monday - Friday 12 - 7pm
Saturday & Sunday 12 - 6pm.
HistoryGlass@gmail.com
There is nothing quite like the fabulous vintage hand blown glass , the rare ceramics, and the marvelous mid-century modern furniture found at "The End of History". We opened our shop in Manhattan's West Village in 1997. Since then we have amassed more decorative objects from the 50's & 60's in one room than anywhere in the world. As a result we've become the go-to for top editors from magazines as well as a choice source to the best interior designers in the world. We will update this blog often... and as new publications come out and exciting new items hit our shelves!